Sunday · September 27, 2026
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American history, reported as it happened
Made for the 250th
19321776 Club

Earhart lifts off from Los Angeles alone, aiming for Newark without a stop

Three months after crossing the Atlantic solo, she points her red Vega east across the whole continent.

By the summer of 1932, Amelia Earhart had already crossed the Atlantic alone and earned the Distinguished Flying Cross for it. On August 24, she climbed into her red Lockheed Vega 5B in Los Angeles and took off headed east, alone, with no stops planned before Newark. Roughly 24 hours later she set down in Newark, New Jersey, the first woman to fly nonstop across the United States by herself…

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More from August 24
1814

Smoke rises over Washington as British troops torch the Capitol and the President's Mansion

Madison flees to Maryland while Dolley Madison's staff carries out the silver as British soldiers sit down to the dinner meant for his guests.
1942

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Three to five bombs and a torpedo cripple the Japanese flattop near Santa Isabel Island as the fleets close for battle.
1949

The North Atlantic Treaty takes effect; twelve nations are now bound to defend each other

Four months after the signing in Washington, Article 5's promise becomes binding law.
19441776 Club
Captain Raymond Dronne defies the plan to bypass the city and becomes the first French officer back inside its walls.
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More from The World Wars
1943

A destroyer cuts PT-109 in half; the young skipper swims for shore towing a burned man by his life vest

Two of the crew are dead in the water off the Solomons; the rest owe their lives to three miles of open sea.
1923

A father administers the presidential oath by lamplight in a Vermont farmhouse

Word of Harding's death reaches Plymouth Notch after midnight, and there is no federal judge for miles.
1936

Owens takes 100-meter gold in Hitler's stadium, 10.3 seconds

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1945

The Enola Gay drops the first atomic bomb used in war on Hiroshima

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